Experience
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York
- MKP Capital Management
Expertise
- Macroeconomic policy
- Labor and workforce dynamics
- Inflation and the Federal Reserve
Education
- Columbia University, J.D., B.S., B.A.
Recent Coverage
JUN 6, 2024
Marketplace | Will the May jobs report show more of a slowdown in wage growth?
“We’re kind of clawing back some of what was lost,” said Skanda Amarnath, an economist at policy research group Employ America. “After we’ve been through a series of cost of living shocks, real wages are improving.”
MAY 14, 2024
New York Times | What Forecasters Say About Interest Rates (and Why They Disagree)
Skanda Amarnath, the executive director of Employ America, a labor-focused group that tracks inflation data and Fed policy, was originally among those expecting a spring rate cut. In a recent newsletter, he said the first quarter “was filled with a series of upside inflation surprises” — from well-known potential trouble spots like auto insurance and obscure ones like financial adviser management fees — but “it does not mean that the disinflationary process has come to an end.”
MAY 1, 2024
POLITICO Morning Money | The Fed’s rate dance
Skanda Amarnath, executive director of the worker advocacy group Employ America, said he’d be surprised if there isn’t further disinflation by the end of the year, given that real-time data suggest rent inflation will eventually drop. But “the notion that this keeps getting delayed is not crazy,” he added. “This stuff takes time.”
MAR 20, 2024
Washington Post | Fed leaves interest rates steady as officials debate timing for cuts
Fed officials avoid putting too much weight on one or two individual inflation reports, and Powell emphasized that point, taking a long view, said Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America, a liberal think tank.
“Powell is giving more of a leash, more margin for error, so no individual data release is make or break,” Amarnath said. “They’re not going to be changing their story radically month to month.”
FEB 20, 2024
Bloomberg | Fed’s ‘Golden Path’ to Soft Landing Aided by Productivity Boom
“We haven’t had non-recessionary gains in a sustained manner since the 1990s,” said Skanda Amarnath, executive director of Employ America. “There are good reasons why this can continue.”
Interested in speaking with Skanda Amarnath?
About Skanda
Skanda Amarnath is the Executive Director of Employ America, a policy research organization focused on monetary, fiscal, and industrial-level policies for advancing full employment outcomes and addressing business cycle risks. He leads the organization’s work to design new industrial policy tools to fight inflation, including the successful revision of federal regulation to use existing statutory authorities for stockpile acquisition to flexibly support supply-side responses. Before leading the organization, Amarnath served as Employ America’s Director of Research & Analysis, where he focused primarily on Federal Reserve policy.
